Last night, we saw Round Two of Boston protests regarding what seems to be a rash of what we have been discussing over the past few blogs. Namely, instances of police killing citizens and, seemingly, nothing happening about it.
Allegations of homicide abound.
But not charged.
We have been discussing the Ferguson matter in which an unarmed young black man was fired upon (multiple times) by a police officer. The young man died from the wounds and many are saying that the officer committed a homicide. Despite the fact that testimony presented to the grand jury told different tales ranging from a description of a cold blooded murder to a shooting in valid self-defense, the grand jury found that there was no probable cause to believe that the officer should be formally charged with a crime. Any crime.
I am hoping that I am not insulting your intelligence by suggesting to you that allegations of police excessive, sometimes deadly, force is not terrible unusual. Usually, the officer or officers involved are not prosecuted.
Take the small central California city of Salinas, for example. Within a period of 11 days, two such incidents recently happened.
Former New York state Chief Judge Sol Wachtler famously remarked that a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.” Raw data, as well as the experiences of those regularly involved with the criminal justice system can attest to this. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.
“If the prosecutor wants an indictment and doesn’t get one, something has gone horribly wrong,” adds Andrew D. Leipold, a University of Illinois law professor who has written critically about grand juries. “It just doesn’t happen.”
Cases involving police shootings, however, appear to be an exception. It would appear, at least from media accounts, that grand juries frequently decline to indict law-enforcement officials.
Here is hoping you had a great Thanksgiving. Here’s hoping you enjoy “Black Friday”. And here is a story that contains nothing for you to enjoy or be happy about.
As you no doubt have heard from various sources, the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., has returned its decision regarding the death of the late18-year-old Michael Brown and the allegations against Police Officer Darren Wilson. You have no doubt also heard about the aftermath which included protests in various locations including Ferguson and Boston.
The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has certain insights into these events that you may not have realized. Some of them are from knowledge of the criminal justice system. Some are from my experience of so many years as a criminal defense attorney.
Boston police had a busy half-hour this past Saturday morning at Logan Airport.
Law enforcement first responded to a report of a person screaming inside a car with a broken windshield around 11:23 a.m. near Terminal E. They wound up finding the car near Terminal B. Inside were 52-year-old Anton Hilton of Roxbury. Anton was driving. The passenger was a 21-year-old female.
The passenger told the officers that Anton had assaulted her. They charged Anton with assault and battery and kidnapping.
Ever have one of “those days”?
Michael Barboza, 33, of Bourne (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) sure did.
It was one week ago today. The Defendant , just kept losing things.
My last posting examined this subject from the standpoint of whether the police have the right to grab your smart-phone without a warrant. It triggered rights guaranteed you courtesy of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Today we continue the search and seizure issue from another angle. Let’s say that the officer does have a warrant. We know that he then has the right to take the items. However, you have a great security program in effect and he cannot figure out how to open it.
He turns to you for help. Let’s say that you do not want to give him that help because what he finds may incriminate you.
We have discussed some of the myriad of issues which occur when defense counsel seeks to suppress evidence. In short, the defense brings a motion to prevent the prosecution from using evidence against a criminal defendant because it was discovered in violation of that defendant’s Constitutional Rights. It is an important tool to the defense and can often lead to the dismissal of the case altogether.
While this may anger some, that same “some” is often grateful for the efforts of counsel when it is their rights that were violated and the prosecution is only too happy to use that unconstitutionally discovered evidence against them.
But I digress. These are things you already know if you read this blog with any regularity.
No, this is not a re-posting of my previous blog. This case is from Bristol, Connecticut, and the officer was allegedly assaulted by a woman in the field while in mid-investigation.
Just to show that these dangers do not just face officers in the Bay State.
Stashia M. Luddy, 27, of Bristol and hereinafter, the “Defendant” is that woman. She is accused of attacking a police officer after refusing to obey orders.
In the past, I have acknowledged that being a police officer is a hard and dangerous job. Of course, I was referring to their time while at work, not at home.
A Boston Police Officer, however, recently faced purported danger in his South Boston home. Mary Niland (hereinafter “Defendant Ex”) of South Boston is accused of attacking both him and a lady friend last week. More specifically, she has been charged with breaking into the officer’s home in the middle of the night and assaulting the two as they were in bed.
“[Defendant Ex], who is his former girlfriend broke into his home uninvited and crept into the bedroom where he was staying with another woman,” argued the prosecution at the arraignment. She went on to tell the court that the officer and Defendant Ex were no longer a couple, but that, at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning, she broke in and went on the attack. That would be the charges of, at least, Breaking And Entering and Assault and Battery.
Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog